The Design Challenge
People are more connected than ever before thanks to better internet, faster devices and social media platforms. With all of this connectivity, it makes you wonder if we are really connecting to people or just showing off the interesting parts of our life. This project explores finding ways to use technology to improve the way we connect to loved ones via social media. This is a conceptual project and is an ongoing exploration.
What is Pebbl?
Pebbl is a slower, simpler way to connect with the ones you love on social media. To connect with friends, you can send a virtual 'Pebbl' to invite friends to join your Pebbl network. This can be done with phone numbers and email addresses rather than searching directly through lists of 100 people named John Dorian.
Pebbl Requests
The only way to receive someone’s Pebbl is if they send it to you directly, much like the ritual of a Gentoo penguin who gives a smooth and shiny pebble to its love interest. This means that those weekly messages from middle-aged men wanting to be your sugar daddy will be a thing of the past.
The Pebbl Garden
Once you receive a Pebbl, it can be placed in a virtual ‘Pebbl Garden’ alongside the Pebbls of those most important to you. Your 500 random Facebook friends from high school will never have to know that you've actually been feeling a bit shit lately.
Pebbl Updates
Social media apps have become these weird endless lists of words and pictures that you scroll through in the dark before you go to sleep. They tell your brain that 'Melinda is better than you, Paul makes more money than you and Felicity just got a marriage promotion baby (it’s a thing, look it up)'. Ugh, sounds terrible.
Your Pebbl update keeps things simple and open. You can share how you're actually feeling and add images and videos that you don't necessarily want to share with the entire universe.
The Pebbl Feed
Finally, a feed that's just full of the good stuff. Your latest Pebbl updates will appear in the Garden but your past activity will be shared in the Feed. Instead of likes and shares and comments, you can reach out to friends through direct messages.
Direct Pebbls
You can share images or updates with one person and save the history of your Pebbl friendship. You could also just use literally any other social media platform but saying 'I'm going to send you a Pebbl later' is, like, a thousand times cuter.
Simple Setup
No need to sign your life and organs away when you agree to sign up for Pebbl. Input your basic information to confirm your human-ness and set up your Pebbl. Easy. Sadly, this isn’t a real product so it’s actually not that simple.
Privacy First
Nobody wants to share their life with a bunch of randos but if you are into that sort of thing, we don’t judge. You can choose to share your Pebbl updates with your Pebbl network or with everyone on the whole Earth! You can also use Pebbl as a way to track your emotions by keeping your posts to yourself.
Interested in Pebbl?
I really must reiterate that Pebbl is a fun conceptual idea that does not exist. If you are someone with millions of dollars to spare and a lot of patience, let's go into business together and never look back. Alternatively, you could just hire me as a designer or ideas consultant (my dream job title) to work on something else. Reach out to me here but just know that I will charge you a lot of money.
Pebbl 1.0 (2017)
Pebbl Backstory
I initially worked on Pebbl as a digital prototyping experiment at University in 2017. Pebbl was designed to be a physical object that lit up in different colours in the home without the need for using a screen (see above image). This process humbled me and made me realise that I don't enjoy coding Arduinos and 3D printing tiny snap-fit ABS plastic boxes. I'm more of a 'words and pretty pictures' kind of person.
I loved exploring this topic and developing it as a concept. Over the last few years, I have worked on several updated versions of Pebbl for mobile and I continue to discuss this idea with friends and colleagues. I also adapted the Pebbl concept to be pitched in a Korean Startup Competition. Stay tuned to see what a Pebbl will look like in 2033 when I inevitably hire a robot to make it for me.
Pebbl 2.0 (2020)
